1998 Survey of Small Business Finances
The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances (SSBF) is the third
survey of U.S. small businesses conducted by the Board of Governors.
The survey collected information on firm
and owner characteristics, an inventory of small businesses' use of financial
services and of their financial service suppliers, and income and balance
sheet information. The content of the 1998 survey is similar to the 1993 survey;
however, there are some differences. Specifically the "most recent loan" section has been revised (section MRL in 1998 survey and section J in 1993 survey) and
employment is collected somewhat differently (see FAQ page). Some questions on owner wealth have been added.
Please consult the 1998 codebook and questionnaire for more information.

This site contains methodology reports, working papers and technical studies, database documentation including a codebook and annotated questionnaire,
and the full 1998 public data set.

Methodology Study (120 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
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| (493 KB PDF)
The methodology study was conducted by NORC prior to conducting the 1998 SSBF. The study consisted of focus groups and cognitive interviews to improve the
1998 Survey of Small Business Finances survey instrument. The goal of this methodological study was to uncover sources of error
in respondent's reporting of financial data and to develop ways to improve the data through changes in the wording of questionnaire items,
including lead-ins and interviewer prompts, and revisions to the worksheet format.

Pretest 1 (25 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
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| (40 KB PDF)
The pretest had a series of objectives. The first was to inform the design of the screening and data collection questionnaire. Next, the quality of the
Dun and Bradstreet sample was evaluated. Third, the materials developed to encourage respondents to participate in the study and to assist interviewers
in answering questions was examined. And finally, NORC's processes and protocols for the main data collection effort were tested.

Pretest 2 (31 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
compression)
| (53 KB PDF)
The objectives of this pretest were to further evaluate the objectives of the first pretest. More information was gathered to inform the design of the screening
and data collection questionnaire. The materials developed to encourage respondents to participate in the study and to assist interviewers in answering
questions was tested further. The CATI Screener questionnaire and Main questionnaire were checked to be sure that the program was working according to
specifications. The processes and protocols for the main data collection effort were once again evaluated.

Effects of the Level of Interviewer Effort on the Characteristics of Completed
Responses: An Experiment Using the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances
Marianne P. BitlerProceedings of the Second International Conference on Establishment Surveys,
Buffalo, N.Y., June 17-21, 2000. Article(122 KB PDF)

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances: Sampling and Level of Effort Associated with
Gaining Cooperation from Minority-Owned Business
Catherine Haggerty, Karen Grigorian, Rachel Harter and John D. WolkenProceedings of the Second International Conference on Establishment Surveys,
Buffalo, N.Y., June 17-21, 2000. Article(112 KB PDF)

Imputation of the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances: Stochastic Relaxation and
Multiple ImputationArthur B. Kennickell
Prepared for the Annual Meeting of the American Statistical Association, August 18-21, 1991.Article(152 KB PDF)

Documentation
Two types of technical documentation for the 1998 SSBF are available: the
public use codebook and the annotated questionnaire. Both the codebook and the questionnaire are required
to understand the data set construction. Additionally, sample frequency distributions and summary statistics for each variable
on the data set are provided.

Codebook and unweighted frequency distribution for the 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances
The codebook contains a summary of technical features of the survey, a
brief description of weight results, a description of how to use the account
and institution inventory data, a list of definitions of the variables, and an
index of the variables contained in the public data set. Sample frequency
distributions of the variables contained in the public data set are available
separately. Note: When uncompressed, the WordPerfect version of the
codebook requires approximately 2.8 MB of disk space and the distributions
requires approximately 528 KB of disk space.Codebook (292 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
compression)
| (221 KB PDF)Distributions (70 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
compression)
| (146 KB PDF)

Survey Questionnaire
The questionnaire provided is a copy of the one that was used with Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) instrument.
The questionnaire has been edited to reflect the data editing changes and variables that were added, dropped, or moved.
The annotated text is in italics, bold, underlined and highlighted in order to stand out from the original text. These annotations can be found
to the right of most questions. The WordPerfect version of the questionnaire comes in two pieces, both pieces are in the zipped file.
Note: When uncompressed,the WordPerfect version of the questionnaire will take up
approximately 871 KB of disk space.
Questionnaire (170 KB WordPerfect 9.0 WINZIP
compression)
| (1.9 MB PDF)

Survey Data
The survey data available here are contained in either a SAS transport file
or an ASCII flat (rectangular) file.

SAS Transport File
The SAS transport file is compressed in two ways: Unix compressed (.Z ) and
WINZIP (.ZIP).Note: When uncompressed, the SAS transport file requires
approximately 22 MB of disk space. Examples of programs to convert from the
SAS transport file to a SAS data set on the Unix and Windows platforms are
provided in the file transport.Note: The SAS transport zipped file must be unzipped to a SAS transport file before it can be converted into a SAS data set.SAS data for PCs(1.6 MB .ZIP)SAS data for Unix(1.5 MB .Z)